"It's a trap!"

Headline (May 19):

Get Ready for More Rigged Presidential “Debates”

Every debate is the same scenario, featuring the GOP presidential candidate battling both his opponent and the moderator. For example, in 2012, moderator Candy Crowley of CNN, shockingly interjected on behalf of President Barack Obama to refute an accurate point that Republican nominee Mitt Romney was making about the Benghazi terrorists. The incident skewed the debate toward Obama.

Four years later, in the Democratic presidential primary debates between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, Donna Brazile, a CNN political analyst, improperly intervened by giving advance notice to Hillary Clinton’s campaign about some of the questions that would be asked. After the revelations, Brazile was fired by CNN and expressed regret, but the episode shows how the presidential debates are rigged.

Unfortunately, this year’s two presidential debates will follow the same pattern. The Republican Party’s nominee, President Donald Trump, will be debating both President Joe Biden and the moderators.

We all know it's a trap, and Trump is walking in willingly. He's demanding that Biden get drug-tested; I assume Trump is willing to submit to his own drug test, but this ploy is bound to fail, and that's not going to help Trump's image: he'll have to meekly submit to the idea of no testing. That won't make him look strong before the debate. Biden has already rebuffed Trump's proposal to have at least one Fox-moderated debate. All of this just makes Trump look weak: a small man making demands that his more powerful opponent regally refuses.

I probably won't be watching the debates if for no other reason than the awkward time-zone problem. But I'll be curious to watch and read the post-debate commentary.